Sherwyn ThorsonThorson was a two-time NCAA All-American wrestler for Iowa under coach Dave McCuskey, making it to the Nationals finals twice. At the heavyweight title match at the 1960 NCAAs, the Hawkeye lost to Dale Lewis of the University of Oklahoma, 3-1. He took a year away from wrestling during the 1960-61 season to concentrate on football. At the 1962 NCAAs, Thorson pinned Wisconsin's Roger Pillath at 3:21 of the finals, not only winning the unlimited (heavyweight) championship, but also avenging the outcome of the 1962 Big Ten finals two weeks earlier, where the Badger pinned the Hawkeye in the conference title match.
In addition to turning the tables on Pillath, Thorson was involved in an earlier situation where he avenged a humiliating loss on the mat. As a wrestler at Fort Dodge High School in north-central Iowa, Thorson lost in the Class A heavyweight finals at the 1958 Iowa state wrestling championships. When he arrived at Iowa City, he discovered he would be teammates with the wrestler who defeated him for that title. In wrestling room matches, Thorson repeatedly beat the man who denied him a state crown, earning the starting spot as heavyweight.
Also known by the nicknames of "Thumper" and "Thor", Thorson was more than a national champion wrestler at Iowa. He also played offensive guard and linebacker for the football Hawkeyes, earning All-American honors on the wrestling mat and on the gridiron, the only Hawkeye athlete to accomplish both of those feats ... and perhaps the only athlete in NCAA history to do both, according to the Iowa sports website BlackHeartsGoldPants.com.
Thorson was a physical specimen who was very agile for a big man, having grown from being a 138-pound wrestler as a high school freshman into a 235-pounder at Iowa. He was an early proponent of working out with weights, in an era when college wrestling and football coaches feared their athletes would become "muscle-bound" if they set foot in the weight room.
"I went at the weights hard my junior year when a professor failed me in a course that I know I did well in. He told me he considered me a paid professional athlete and just wasn't going to give me a passing grade," Thorson told the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame. That time helped the two-sport star muscle up to be more successful against larger opponents in wrestling and football.
After being selected in both the NFL (Los Angeles Rams, seventh round) and the AFL (Boston Patriots, third round) drafts (this was before the two organizations merged to become today's NFL), Thorson elected to play in the Canadian Football League. Playing with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1962-68), Thorson helped his team win the Grey Cup in 1962 and return to the title game in 1965. He was named a Western Conference All-Star in 1962.
Thorson has been inducted into a number of Halls of Fame. In addition to being welcomed into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007, Thorson was inducted into the Fort Dodge Senior High School Hall of Fame in 1967. He is also an honoree of the University of Iowa Varsity Club Hall of Fame, and the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame.
Thorson is survived by his wife, Linda, children Tjeran and Joryn, and four grandchildren, Lehr, Asle, Ayden and Amelia.
See video of the 1962 NCAA finals match where Sherwyn Thorson pinned Wisconsin's Roger Pillath to win the National title. The heavyweight match begins at 35 minutes into the film, which is silent and was shot in black-and-white. Pillath is wrestling bare-chested.
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